AN ANTI-capitalist protester from Warwickshire who took part in last year's May Day riots has escaped being sent to prison.

Care worker Emily McHale, aged 27, of Rose Street, Leamington, was given a 120-hour community service order and told to pay #500 costs.

A fellow defendant, 34-year-old Londoner Sean Cregan, was jailed for six months.

Both had been found guilty of violent disorder by a jury at Middlesex Crown Court last month.

Mother-of-one McHale had denied trying to pull a constable from Nelson Column's plinth but admitted hurling an empty plastic bottle at police lines.

During the trial she told the court she had been frustrated by the officers' tactics of penning crowds into Trafalgar Square.

Passing sentence, Judge Fabyan Evans told the pair: "I'm quite satisfied that in view of the damage that had been done to McDonald's earlier that afternoon, police were fully justified in trying to control the crowd in Trafalgar Square in the way they did.

"You were part of a crowd that decided to fight the police. That was quite unnecessary and only added fuel to the situation."

Turning to McHale, who also has an address in Haringey, north London, the judge said: "You behaved with incredible stupidity and at one stage you were seen trying to pull a police officer off the plinth of Nelson's Column while there was considerable violence going on around.

"I accept you now realise you acted stupidly and got caught up in the pressures of the day."

McHale's good character and her genuine intentions to lead an "honest and useful life" in future, meant he could avoid sending her to jail, he added.